That's one of the takeaways from Warriors, Tombs, and Temples: China's Enduring Legacy, the latest exhibit at Bowers Museum, which highlights mysterious and beautiful funerary art from three of the most formative dynasties in Chinese history: the Qin, the Han and the Tang.

Running through March 4, the exhibit showcases the dynasties as high points of Chinese culture and technology and draws from China's most important archaeological excavations, including the famous terracotta army of Qin Shihuangdi -- known today as the eighth wonder of the world.

Beyond warriors, the exhibit includes riches taken from Silk Road adventures. Dazzling gold ornaments, tomb guardians, a mural depicting a game of polo and many other luxuries illustrate the taste of Tang elites and the era’s connection with the West.

The exhibit also displays, for the first time in the United States, gold, silver and gemstone treasures deposited into the treasure-crypt of the Famen Monastery by six Tang Dynasty emperors and China’s only female emperor Wu Zhao.

This important Buddhist site, sealed in 874 of the Tang Dynasty and rediscovered in 1987, was founded with the fragment of the historical Buddha’s finger bone.